A few months ago our local grocery store had boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for about 1/4 of the regular price. My Mom and sister-in-laws and I decided to take advantage of the sale and bottle some chicken. We kept the boxes in the freezer until the morning of the big project. This was a vital step in making the chicken easier to cut up. Nothing is worse than cutting up thawed out chicken breasts; trust me, the last package we cut wasn’t frozen and it took twice as long as the others.
The first step in our process was to cut up the chicken and put it into bottles. After the bottles were filled we added water and about 1/4 tsp of salt. We had three pressure cookers running all day.
The day was long but left us all with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. This is one more thing to scratch off my weekly shopping list.
Eight hours later we completed our 117th pint of bottled chicken.
Raw-Pack Chicken Canning
- Purchase chicken and freeze (any chicken will work, boneless or bone-in. I used boneless skinless chicken breasts because they were on sale!)
- On canning day: wash all bottles and rings.
- Heat water on the stove.
- Prepare meat: while meat is still frozen chop into chunks, or if using bone-in chicken break bones at the joints. Tightly pack chicken into clean hot jars.
- Add about 1/4 tsp salt to each pint jar, 1/2 tsp to quarts (optional). Fill jars with hot water or chicken broth, leave 1 inch head space at the top. Remove air bubbles and fill again. (I remove air bubbles by sliding a small handled spatula along the inside of the jar)
- Wash bottles and rims with hot water to remove any chicken pieces or salt.
- Attach and secure rings and lids.
- Place chicken in a pressure canner.
- Pressure pints for 1 hour 15 minutes, quarts for 1 hour 30 minutes. (if using bone-in chicken reduce times by 15 minutes).
- Be sure to have your pressure canner tested by your local extension office regularly to know how much pressure to use when processing.
